About last night … with audio

I’m too tired and demoralized to write a fresh About last night … 24 hours after the last one.
So here’s what you should do:
Take the ALN that followed the win over Carolina and run it through a computer program that turns the text into the exact opposite.
That’ll describe your Montreal Canadiens’ loss to the lowly Islanders.

After the Wednesday night game, I joked with Mario Saraceno, the Islanders pro scout assigned to the Bell Centre.

“What a powerhouse,” I said, in reference to the team that had just easily shut out the Hurricanes. “You guys must be terrified.”

They weren’t.

I’m not privy to the report Saraceno filed to New York. But I’ll go way out on a limb and guess the scout mentioned Carolina’s utter failure to pressure a Canadiens defence corps lacking four experienced players.

The Islanders didn’t make that mistake.

On L’Antichanbre, Gatson Therrien dissected the not-so-funny comedy of Alexei Emelin errors that led to Jay Pandolfo’s goal:

The Russian defenceman, who played his best game of the season against Carolina, gave up the blue line, played with his back to the attacking Islanders and pivoted too late and too far off his man. Then, with his knee on the ice and his stick on the wrong wide to block a pass, Emelin could do nothing about the Josh Bailey feed that found Pandolfo on the edge of the blue paint.

He was just as bad on the Islanders’ third goal. Emelin made a pass to no one on the left boards, initiating a chaotic zone sequence that ended with Mark Streit pinching deep to score.

Michel Bergeron, who can be caustic in his criticism of the Canadiens, expressed sympathy for Emelin. A unilingual Russian playing with a Swiss defence partner, Raphael Diaz, and a Slovakian goaltender, Peter Budaj, might face some communication issues when scrambling to execute proper coverage.

And Emelin wasn’t unique in his ineptitude. The D was uniformly soft and disorganized, Budaj was weak on two goals and the last-place team in the Eastern Conference collected two points that the Canadiens might find themselves needing in April.

The game provided fodder for second-guessing.

• Should Carey Price, who had a leisurely night against Carolina, have started again, coming off a shutout?

• Should Lars Eller have spent the first 14 minutes of the third period nailed to the bench?

• Why was Scott Gomez, who has not scored since Feb. 5, on the ice after Jacques Martin had pulled Budaj for a sixth attacker in the dying seconds of the game?

• When will Martin realize that Tomas Plekanec can’t play the point on the power-play?

Like I said, I’m tired and emotional.

It was a tough loss against a team that probably won’t make the playoffs.

And now the Canadiens face two opponents who are likely to be playing hockey in late April: the Rangers at the Bell Centre on Saturday night and Boston here on Monday.

The only D last night with more than a year experience was Josh. Lets face it even PK only has a whopping year under his belt and here we are complaining about performance of a crew that most of us wouldn’t hire to mow our lawns or plow our driveways if they had that little experience. Not so sure Emelin sucks that bad……Ya he made some mistakes and in my view needs to be smarter more aggressive but has nothing to do with skill. Baily should have been on his arse crossing the line. Its a question of he’s trying to do too much and not that he can’t do it. We all love PK but PK at times is a disaster as well in our zone
and the only reason he gets away with his blunders is his offensive upswing. Right now we’re not blesses with tons of experience nor size behind the line and on many nights it will show and the only thing that will save us is if we play a trap defense which will be boring as hell to watch. If not it will be a long year with performance that resemble last night. And think of this. We haven’t met the likes of the Pens or Caps or Hawks or Red Wings, teams with real speed. If we get walked over by the Pens without their two snipers in the lineup imagine when they return.

That is a horifically false statement. Chris Simon has participated in a couple of KHL All-Star Games and won a shooting competition in one of them he was never named league MVP. Nature of it being a very “Have” and “Have Not” league has lower level teams holding a player like Chris Simon and him being their best, hence his inclusion in the All-Star Game.

Ever read the listings for the AHL All Star game? Not exactly a load of elites in there but hey, everyone’s ready to throw a parade when one of our prospects is ruling that league.

Emelin is adapting to the NA ice, it will take time for him to adjust and he’s not had nearly the rope Diaz has had despite Diaz making many more mistakes than he has, while doing nothing to give a physical element to the back end.

I swear the last two years of this Jekyll and Hyde team has me going positively bipolar. ‘Capable du meilleurs et du pire’ is an apt description of a team that finds its On Switch at the very last second (often too late…) and plays to its opponent’s level.

They play a crap team, they tune out. They play the champs, they bring their A-game. It’s gotten so bad, you can actually see it coming. And every once in a while (like during the Carolina game), you think just maybe they’ve turned a corner and they’ll play a smart road game, put in the effort and eke out the 2 points.

Nope… Gotta make it exciting, eh! Gotta wait ’til the game’s almost out of reach to display the kind of effort that would have wrapped this baby up midway through the second… F…

JM has unbelievable self control. I don’t know how he keeps it together watching this s*** for 3 periods. It’s truly amazing! I don’t get the whole Pleks on the point for the powerplay, or like others why MaxPac and Cole aren’t on the ice when the game is on the line. I don’t get the Gomer love or the Eller tough love. I don’t get the shunning of Emelin (although after tonight… I can kind of see it…) And I don’t get how this guy gets this team in the show year after year (he’s got to be doing something right). But the one thing that really blows me away is how JM can keep it together watching guys just hand it to a team that barely wants it themselves. Bag skate?! Boucher bug-eyed stare down? Full blown Torts meltdown?! Gimme something!

Yep. As long as this crew is around you’ll never see Patrick Roy anywhere near this locker room… The bill to replace furniture would be in the 6 figures!

Ya true to everything you said. But, big BUT there is one person in charge, and that said person is giving Gomez the ice time. Why? We don’t know. During the game I was yelling at Gomez as much as everyone else, but hes getting the minutes. I don’t know if its Martin (I hope it’s not) or Gauthier (might be) but as an owner, Jeff needs to do something.

I think they will send to the Ahl before xmas. Tsn has has posted a 2nd article about gomez in 2 days maybe he’s getting all this icetime as a last chance to perform ….-2 is not very good lol . Hasn’t scored since feb 5???? If I was gomez id atleast donate a million to a charity. I wish a reporter would ask him what he thinks about his contract just to see how he’d react

He def didn’t help. Only good thing I saw from him was when he tied up tavares stick and carried the puck in the O zone well. He’s not gelling with any of the habs out there. I think he might be better on another team. He’s a third line player bottom line. Keep him there. And get him off the pp!!! Omg he can’t shoot the puck.

PS Boone, I love everything that you post! I recently moved to Vancouver in February (leave me alone, it’s pretty here) I went to heritage classic in Calgary and then made my way over to BC! Love the posts and the blog and I count on you to make the days when I miss the 4 o’clock games to feel like I’m at home! From the best Habs chick (seriously, I am), I know your the best
Kt girl

Gomez …. sucked! !!! His passes are always to early. And he’s so scared of getting hit. He has the worst shot on the team. Fans need to start a protest …. this has gone to far!!! Why is he still with the habs??? He’s killing this team.

Injury and illness happen. The best teams can deal with that and still win. It’s the team that wins, not one player. We all know that, we’ve all watched enough puck and played enough shinny to understand that. We have so many skilled players, and many of them are just skating on the NHL rink for the first time. But how do we win this game? Coaching. I hate blaming it on the coach. Usually for a Habs fan he is the scapegoat (him or Gomez) but really? I read a post before (in an earlier Stubbs post) that asked if Martin would be hired for any other team. Haha. Nope. We are the best franchise in the history of the NHL. What are we doing with an ex-Ottawa coach that couldn’t win anything. C’mon Molsons. Fix this.

Why were our two best wingers not out for every second when we had the goalie pulled? Cole and Pacioretty are exactly what this team needs when they need to barrel in to the net for that greasy goal to save the day. JM once again is out to lunch about extra man scenarios.

At this point the only benefit that is gained from these types of games is the fact that a bunch of rookie Dmen in the habs organization are getting valuable NHL experience. Other than that, these games are complete crap and something really has to give, cause for every game the habs come out and play well, they play one like this. I think that the crappy D might be entirely the cause of this loss, so as frustrating as it is, firing the coach or making a huge trade or anything other than burrying scott gomez in a hole would be an inappropriate response. The only solution to the problem is to wait for marky and campoli, and unfortunately it seems more likely than not that the games we lose while waiting will be enough to keep us out of the playoffs this year.

…ahem, Ladies & Chicken Littles …Washington Capitals ONE …Winnipeg Avro-Arrows FOUR !!!
…take Your meds, warm Your blankies, go to bed like good little Chicks & Chickens
…look-up tomorrow morning …and, I will bet You will still be able to see the little white puffy clouds floating above Your heads (though, for a few of You, they may be of the pink variety )
…nighty night

Wow – guess I’m a bit tired and emotional too. Truth be told, I completely agree with Boone on his points about Gomez being on the ice at the end of the game and Pleks playing the point on the PP. Neither make any sense to me either.

Y’know..HE REALLY IS A DOUCHE. I truly enjoy watching Eller play. What did he do that was so egregious that he gets nailed to the bench??? What a nice play he made on Patches’ goal! So instead of giving him more ice-time when we need a goal, he gives him none?

Jeezzzzz they lose to a bad team off a back to back game. They play to their opponents capabilities they have for a few years now in the regular season. 4kids on d, and no one caring weather they won or loss tonight, from what seen. I’m disappointed, and they will be very lucky to make the show this year, unless a deal is done. Just me!

…like I said before, ‘fresh legs’ are essential for JM’s game (‘system’) …second of a back-to-back You lose that split-second to make a ‘Canes-like victory possible
…We will be ready for the Rangers
…character, skill, speed + rested legs, = We’ll see a better and different result than We saw tonight
…but I hope JM keeps Gomez limited to the 4th or 3rd line with no more than 12 or 13 minutes TOI
…I think our inexperienced D will re-group as well if JM gives Them the opportunity

That’s for sure!
Still can’t get over Max. He comes back and he’s up there in the scoring race. 67 shots before tonight, that’s good for around 4th in the league. Great Kid, can’t wait for more from him